Following offence, some excel (5)

I believe the answer is:

since

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'following' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'offence some excel' is the wordplay.
'offence' becomes 'sin' (a sin is an offence or transgression).
'some excel' becomes 'ce' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sin'+'ce'='SINCE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for since that I've seen before include "Because; ago" , "in the past" , "Seeing that" , "From that time one" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.